四六级

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　　Part ⅡReading Comprehension (Skimming and Scanning) (15 minutes)

　　Directions: In this part, you will have 15 minutes to go over the passage quickly and answer the questions on Answer Sheet 1. For questions 1-7, choose the best answer from the four choices marked A), B), C) and D). For questions 8-10, complete the sentences with the information given in the passage.

　　Bosses Say “Yes” to Home Work

　　Rising costs of office space, time lost to stressful commuting, and a slow recognition that workers have lives beyond the office—all are strong arguments for letting staff work from home.

　　For the small business, there are additional benefits too—staff are more productive, and happier, enabling firms to keep their headcounts (员工数) and their recruitment costs to a minimum. It can also provide competitive

　　advantage, especially when small businesses want to attract new staff but don?t have the budget to offer huge salaries.

　　While company managers have known about the benefits for a long time, many have done little about it, sceptical of whether they could trust their employees to work to full capacity without supervision, or concerned about

　　the additional expenses teleworking policies might incur as staff start charging their home phone bills to the business.

　　Yet this is now changing. When communications provider Inter?Tel researched the use of remote working solutions among small? and medium?sized UK businesses in April this year, it found that 28% more companies

　　claimed to have introduced flexible working practices than a year ago.

　　The UK network of Business Links confirms that it too has seen a growing interest in remote working solutions from small businesses seeking its advice, and claims that as many as 60-70% of the businesses that come through

　　its doors now offer some form of remote working support to their workforces.

　　Technology advances, including the widespread availability of broadband, are making the introduction of remote working a piece of cake.

　　“If systems are set up properly, staff can have access to all the resources they have in the office wherever they have an internet connection,” says Andy Poulton, e?business advisor at Business Link for Berkshire and Wiltshire.

　　“There are some very exciting developments which have enabled this.”

　　One is the availability of broadband everywhere, which now covers almost all of the country (BT claims that, by July, 99.8% of its exchanges will be broadband enabled, with alternative plans in place for even the most remote exchanges). “This is the enabler,” Poulton says.

　　Yet while broadband has come down in price too,those service providers targeting the businessmarket warn against consumer servicesmasquerading (伪装) as business?friendly broadband.

　　“Broadband is available for as little as ￡15 a month,but many businesses fail to appreciate the hiddencosts of such a service,” says Neil Stephenson, salesand marketing director at Onyx Internet, an internetservice provider

　　based in the north?east of England. “Providersoffering broadband for rock?bottom prices are notorious for poor service, with regularbreakdowns and heavily congested (拥堵的) networks. It is always advisable for businesses

　　to look beyond the price tag and look for a business?only provider that can offer morereliability, with good support.” Such services don?t cost too much—quality services can befound for upwards of ￡30 a month.

　　The benefits of broadband to the occasional home worker are that they can access email in realtime, and take full advantage of services such as internet?based backup or even internet?based phone services.

　　Internet?based telecoms, or VoIP (Voice over IP) to give it its technical title, is an interestingtool to any business supporting remote working. Not necessarily because of the promise offree or reduced price phone calls

　　(which experts point out is misleading for the average business), but because of thesophisticated voice services that can be exploited by the remote worker—facilities such asvoicemail and call forwarding, which provide a

　　continuity of the company image for customers and business partners.

　　By law, companies must “consider seriously” requests to work flexibly made by a parent with achild under the age of six, or a disabled child under 18. It was the need to accommodateemployees with young children that

　　motivated accountancy firm Wright Vigar to begin promoting teleworking recently. Thecompany, which needed to upgrade its IT infrastructure (基础设施) to provide connectivity witha new, second office, decided to

　　introduce support for remote working at the same time.

　　Marketing director Jack O?Hern explains that the company has a relatively young workforce,many of whom are parents: “One of the triggers was when one of our tax managers returnedfrom maternity leave. She was

　　intending to work part time, but could only manage one day a week in the office due tochildcare. By offering her the ability to work from home, we have doubled her capacity—nowshe works a day a week from home, and a

　　day in the office. This is great for her, and for us as we retain someone highly qualified.”

　　For Wright Vigar, which has now equipped all of its fee?earners to be able to work at maximumproductivity when away from the offices (whether that?s from home, or while on the road),this strategy is not just about

　　saving on commute time or cutting them loose from the office, but enabling them to work moreflexible hours that fit around their home life.

　　O‘Hern says: “Although most of our work is client?based and must fit around this, we can?t seeany reason why a parent can?t be on hand to deal with something important at home, if theyhave the ability to complete a

　　project later in the day.”

　　Supporting this new way of working came with a price, though. Although the firm was updatingits systems anyway, the company spent 10-15% more per user to equip them with a laptoprather than a PC, and about the

　　same to upgrade to a server that would enable remote staff to connect to the companynetworks and access all their usual resources.

　　Although Wright Vigar hasn?t yet quantified the business benefits, it claims that, in addition to being able to retain key staff with young families, it is able to save fee?earners a substantial amount of “dead” time in their

　　working days.

　　That staff can do this without needing a fixed telephone line provides even more efficiency savings. “With Wi?Fi (fast, wireless internet connections) popping up all over the place, even on trains, our fee?earners can be

　　productive as they travel, and between meetings, instead of having to kill time at the shops,” he adds.

　　The company will also be able to avoid the expense of having to relocate staff to temporary offices for several weeks when it begins disruptive office renovations soon.

　　Financial recruitment specialist Lynne Hargreaves knows exactly how much her firm has saved by adopting a teleworking strategy, which has involved handing her company?s data management over to a remote hosting

　　company, Datanet, so it can be accessible by all the company?s consultants over broadband internet connections.

　　It has enabled the company to dispense with its business premises altogether, following the realisation that it just didn?t need them any more. “The main motivation behind adopting home working was to increase my own

　　productivity, as a single mum to an 11?year?old,” says Hargreaves. “But I soon realised that, as most of our business is done on the phone, email and at off?site meetings, we didn?t need our offices at all. We?re now

　　saving ￡16,000 a year on rent, plus the cost of utilities, not to mention what would have been spent on commuting.”

　　1. What is the main topic of this passage?

　　A) How business managers view hi?tech.

　　B) Relations between employers and employees.

　　C) How to cut down the costs of small businesses.D) Benefits of the practice of teleworking.

　　2. From the research conducted by the communications provider Inter?Tel, we learn that ____.

　　A) more employees work to full capacity at home

　　B) employees show a growing interest in small businesses

　　C) more businesses have adopted remote working solutions

　　D) attitudes toward IT technology have changed

　　3. What development has made flexible working practices possible according to Andy Poulton?

　　A) Reduced cost of telecommunications.B) Improved reliability of internet service.

　　C) Availability of the VoIP service. D) Access to broadband everywhere.

　　4. What is Neil Stephenson?s advice to firms contracting internet services?

　　A) They look for reliable business?only providers.B) They contact providers located nearest to them.

　　C) They carefully examine the contract.D) They contract the cheapest provider.

　　5. Internet?based telecoms facilitates remote working by ____.

　　A) offering sophisticated voice servicesB) giving access to emailing in real time

　　C) helping clients discuss business at homeD) providing calls completely free of charge

　　6. The accountancy firm Wright Vigar promoted teleworking initially in order to ____.

　　A) present a positive image to prospective customers

　　B) support its employees with children to take care of

　　C) attract young people with IT expertise to work for it

　　D) reduce operational expenses of a second office

　　7. According to marketing director Jack O?Hern, teleworking enabled the company to ____.

　　A) enhance its market image B) reduce recruitment costs

　　C) keep highly qualified staffD) minimise its office space

　　8. Wright Vigar?s practice of allowing for more flexible working hours not only benefits the company but helps improve employees ____.

　　9. With fast, wireless internet connections, employees can still be ____ while traveling.

　　10. Single mother Lynne Hargreaves decided to work at home mainly to ____.

　　快速阅读答案

　　1, B, Benefit of the practice of teleworking

　　2, C, more businesses have adopted remote working solution

　　3, C, Access to broadband everywhere

　　4, B, they look for reliable business-only providers

　　5, A, offering sophisticated voice services

　　6, D, support its employees with children to take care of

　　7, B, keep highly qualified staff

　　8, home life

　　9, productive

　　10, increase her productivity

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